Resumo de Book Of Facts - Reader's Digest

COLLECTORS ITEMS

CHERRY TREE TIME
Clock with movements carved from cherry wood and oak were made in the United States in the mid-18th century because brass was then both expensive and difficult to obtain in the North- America. The wooden clocks were invented by two brothers, Benjamin and Timothy Cheney, clockmakers from East Hartford, Connecticut. In 1836, another clockmaker named Eli Terry of Plymouth Connecticut, made 4000 wooden clocks by fitting standard parts together on an assembly line, and few clocks now survive. They were not very accurate and the parts wore quickly. Working wooden clocks could fetch up to about 100 pounds.

A SILVERSMITH TO REVERE

History remembers Paul Revere for his midnight ride in 1775 from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lexington to warn the armed American patriots, the Minutemen, that British troops were in the march. But he had already assured himself lasting reputation for his skill as a silversmith, and his finely engraved work still raises high bids in the world?s auction rooms. Revere also cast bells and cannons, built America?s first mill for rolling sheet copper paper money in Massachusetts. Revere was the son of a French Huguenot refugee, Apollos Rivoire. Appolos changed his name to Revere so that the bumpkins could pronounce it easier.

CONVICT?S CREATION

German alchemist Johann Bottger (1682-1719) was imprisoned in Albrechtsburg fortress in 1703 by Augustus the strong, Elector of Saxony, because he had failed in his promise to make gold. He was his freedom by promising to make porcelain instead. At that time porcelain had to be imported at great cost- only the Chinese knew the secret of its manufacture. Bottger succeeded in 1710, and began producing high- quality, markable porcelain at Meissen, near Dresden. The town, now, in East Germany, remains to this day a centre for the production of porcelain. The most valuable Meissen pieces, dating from the early years of production, now fetch up to 35,000 pounds.

WILLOW OF THE WEST

The popular Chinese- style willow pattern china came from Staffordshire- in England, not China. It probably started with Thomas Minton (1765-1836), who invented a simple design of Chinese scene with willow trees in the 1780s. The standard willow pattern started to appear in the first decade of the 19th century- and is still produced. An early willow pattern plate can now be worth between 15 pounds and 250 pounds.
The legend that the willow picture tells of a lovely Chinese girl running away with her father?s impoverished secretary, pursued by the angry father, has nothing to so with China either. It was invented in England some time in the 19th century.

THE CRAFTSMEN?S GUIDE

Sheraton furniture is known for its elegant design, yet Thomas Sheraton- the man after whom it is named- may never have made a stick of it himself. Sheraton, born in Stockton ?on- Tees in 1751, was the son of a cabinetmaker. He spent the early part of his life traveling the country in his father?s trade. He arrived in London in about 1790 where he became a shopkeeper, author and drawing master. His elegant designs were published in The Cabinet- Maker?s and Upholstere?s Drawing book (published in four volumes in 1791-40 and The Cabinet Directory (1803), and were copied by scores id enthusiastic cabinetmakers. But there is no evidence that Sheraton ever had a workshop in London or made any of the beautiful pieces of furniture that he designed. He died, poverty stricken, in 1806. in the early 1980s , a set of six 19th- century chairs which followed the original Sheraton designs fetched 8000 pounds.

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